Volusia County, FL - On Tuesday, the Volusia County Council approved an extended waste collection and recycling services contract that will increase the price for those services and double the amount of trash collected per week.
The original seven-year solid waste services contract was with Republic Services of Orlando. The nearly $1.14 million contract renewal with Republic Services will last until March 31 of 2020.
"One of the things that's good about this is we got them to double the amount that they'll pick up under the contract," said County Manager Jim Dinneen. "Now if they say this doesn't work, then we'll know better, and they'll know better when we go to bid."
Residents in unincorporated Volusia County will see an annual assessment rate for both solid waste collection and recycling services increased to $238. The current annual rate is $210. The amount of yard trash collected will increase from two to four cubic yards per week. There will also be four additional bulk clean-up events each year, one for each quadrant of Volusia County.
"This is a huge issue, especially in the more rural areas," said Council member Deborah Denys. She added that if the new contract ends up fixing and improving the quality of trash services for Volusia County, then "this is the best thing that we have done in service for our taxpayers at probably the lowest rate possible."
"At the end of the day, it's the taxpayers that must assume this additional cost, so I think that it deserves our attention, and it deserves us to have some dialogue so we might openly advertise and tell our constituents what we're doing here," said Council member Joyce Cusack.
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